Wednesday, March 01, 2006

A Prayer for the Little Dog ...

It depends, I suppose, upon who you talk to, when trying to decide who might be the REAL star of the Fire Ant Gazette ...

Me, I think it's Eric, whose wit and wisdom, words and whimsy never cease to entertain and stimulate ...

My younger boy disagrees ... when he sees me stopping-in at the Gazette, the first words out of his mouth are, "ahhh, the many moods of Abbye!" We then take a moment to refresh the screen a few times, to see if some new additions have been made to the Abbye gallery ... Eric's photo tribute to his canine companion ...

As you can imagine, we were BOTH distressed to read,
in one of Eric's recent posts, that Abbye's health has taken another, and more dramatic turn for the worse.

Although, statistics report, the cat has supplanted the dog as the #1 pet of choice, it's hard to imagine the dog ever relinquishing the title of 'Man's Best Friend.' The dog is our oldest friend, as well ... the first to cross over that intangible line and join us in the realm of domestication ... and the stories of devotion between human and canine are legion, ranging from "Ol' Yeller" and "Greyfriar's Bobby" to Ulysses' "Argus" and the residents of Clifford Simak's "City."

"The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog," said George Vest, in 1855, speaking to a jury that was hearing a lawsuit brought by a man whose dog had been killed. "When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings, and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens. "

CLICK HERE to read the rest of Vest's closing argument to the jury ...

Then, take a moment to say a prayer for a little dog in the Tall City ...